


A Soft Place to Land

by thegirlwhodidntmakesense



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Star Trek: Into Darkness, Pre-Epilogue, Star Trek Beyond, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, because pies are awesome, family fic, my gay space family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 14:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7805596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwhodidntmakesense/pseuds/thegirlwhodidntmakesense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hikaru Sulu wakes up to the smell of freshly baked pies, days after the Yorktown incident, and looks back on his life and relationship with Ben.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Soft Place to Land

Hikaru stirs awake to a cold bed. He reaches over to the bunched-up duvet next to him, and pulls it without any difficulty. The absence of the other human usually hoarding is a bit unlikely. He peeks through one eye and looks around the room for him through a haze of sleep.

The bedroom door is wide open. Ben’s phone is not on the nightstand –maybe he left already? The clock shows 6.31, which means he’s usually getting ready for work. Unless it’s a weekend, which would be way too early for anything. Is it a weekend? He hasn’t been able to keep track since he got home. And quite frankly, he doesn’t bother.

His thoughts are interrupted by the smell of fresh pies wafting in the air.  It’s warm and sweet and feels like home. He makes an involuntary content hum as he shuffles out of bed, blissfully half-asleep.

Ben doesn’t notice him straight away. He’s too caught up stirring away the chocolate in a boiler. The muscles on the broad planes of his back looks hard at work doing such a homely activity. Hikaru can’t fight the urge to run his hands on his husband’s shoulder blades and down the solid line of his spine.

Hikaru snakes his arms around his waist from behind and he can feel Ben chuckle soundly.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Ben greets him with a kiss on the temple and _God, this feels right_. He relishes his familiar scent of earth and fresh laundry as he buries his face in Ben’s shoulder, the softness of the old t-shirt on his fingertips, and the feel of Ben underneath it. He’s solid, both in build and nature. And right now, Hikaru is beyond grateful to have him back in his arms.

“I was gonna complain about the cold and you being up so early, but…” Hikaru grabs a raspberry from a bowl in front of them and pops it into his mouth, as if it finishes the sentences.

Ben quirks his eyebrows in amusement. “This is not such a crappy thing to wake up to?”

“Definitely not the worst by far,” Hikaru plants a quick kiss on his husband’s lips before stepping aside, letting him do the work.

He settles on the island countertop and watches Ben pour the melted chocolate onto the pie crust. He used to do this a lot as a kid. He would sit there, feet swinging and everything, while his mother tells stories of her latest mission with a whisk and a bowl in her hands. Sometimes she would use a cinnamon shaker or actual saucers to model the spaceships, and Hikaru’s stomach would ache from laughter and anticipation because he _wants to do_ _just that when he grows up._ It’s an odd little common ground between Starfleet life and home life, but it’s something Hikaru has been holding onto for ages.

It’s not the same with Ben, though. He doesn’t share the same passion in space travels as Hikaru or his mother. He appreciates the beauty of space (it certainly grew on him over the course of his relationship with Hikaru), but he knows that his place is on Earth. Or anywhere with earth. Ben gladly listens to Hikaru ramble about that dude who cheated on the Kobayashi Maru test and ends up being the captain, or that time he kicked some Romulan ass with him in his first mission at the _Enterprise._ But Hikaru doesn’t miss the horror in Ben’s eyes later in the story where he nearly fell to his death at Vulcan, or how the colors must’ve escaped from his face whenever he talks about death-defying aspects of his job.

So Hikaru starts skipping that part of the story. He would just say something like, “ _It was rough_ ,” and move on. Ben doesn’t miss the little gaps, either, but he doesn’t ask. He never does. He just holds him tighter and kisses him harder, and bakes and eats the pie in quiet contentment. And that’s enough for both of them.

But when Khan crash-landed in downtown San Francisco and tried to destroy the Starfleet HQ, there’s no escaping anymore. It’s no longer just scary/dangerous things Hikaru does on the job. Ben was right there, watching Spock take on Khan from his office. He could've been in one of the buildings Khan had crashed into. This terrifies the hell out of him. _What if Ben is next? Or what if he can’t stand worrying that I might be?_ Hikaru doesn’t know which one is worse.

He came home after a debrief one night and Ben has this strange look on his face. Weary. Nervous. Apologetic. Right then he was _positive_ that this was it. Hikaru clasped his left hand almost defensively, feeling the weight of his platinum wedding band that he _doesn’t ever want to take off dammit._

‘Do you wanna sit down, maybe?’ Ben offered rather sympathetically. He’s always been kind and gentle, of course he wasn’t gonna stop now.

‘Look, Ben, I –’

‘Honey, we –’

They both stopped as soon as they started, at the same time. But Ben reached for his hand, thumb rubbing against the wedding ring, and Hikaru braced himself. _He’s done with me._

‘Hikaru,’ he smiled gently and it breaks Hikaru’s heart that his name would never sound as lovely by anyone else again, ‘I think you need to talk to someone.’

It took his brain an extra second to compute. He wasn't sure if he heard it wrong or it really wasn't what he thought it was. ‘Huh?’

And just like that, ordinary-civilian-botanist Ben managed to reduce one of Starfleet’s best officers to a monosyllabic non-word.

‘Well, you’ve been kind of… on edge lately and I know you don’t talk to me about _every detail_ of your mission –’

‘I didn’t wanna worry you! You always look like you’re about to shit your pants when I do that,’ Hikaru quickly countered.

‘I know. Which is why you might wanna consider talking to a professional instead. So you don’t have to deal with me freaking out every time. It’s a win-win situation,’ he explained patiently. ‘Honey?’

Hikaru shakes his head in disbelief. ‘I’m sorry. I just –I thought you were gonna leave me.’

‘What, why?’ Ben made a face that’s a combination of shock, confusion, and _what the fuck?_

‘Because!’ Hikaru exclaims. ‘You’ve been worrying about me from day one –like, I could’ve died every time I go on a mission, and now with this Khan shitstorm, you could have, too. I mean, you didn’t sign up for this.’

Their little apartment falls silent after Hikaru’s last sentence drops to nothing more than a murmur.

Ben smiled again, even warmer this time, and Hikaru swore he doesn’t deserve him.

‘I also might die from exposure to highly poisonous plants, but you also don’t stop me from going to work every day,’ he shrugs.

His loving-smart-perfect-husband Ben looked at him wistfully. Hikaru went right in for a kiss because deserving or not, fuck if he doesn’t want him.

‘Just talk to someone, okay?’ Ben said with pleading eyes.

‘I will,’ Hikaru promised.

‘Good, because we’ll have a baby girl coming soon and I’d hate to see you go crazy before meeting her.’

_Screw Ben for making him forget how to speak. Again._

‘Our adoption papers came through,’ Ben bit his lower lip to contain his giddiness. ‘We have a match.’

Hikaru was fully prepared to burst into tears when he walked into the room, mind you. He just didn’t expect it to be for a completely different reason. A much better one.

And before they knew it, Demora came running into their lives.

Much like how she comes running into the kitchen just now. Messy pigtail and space pajamas and all.

Hikaru hops off of the counter and bends down with open arms. “Here she is, my little Pie Monkey!”

She jumps into his embrace as he attacks her with noisy smooches. Her cackles ring like the most delightful bell in her fathers’ ears.

“Good morning, Princess.”

“Morning, Daddy.” She flashes a wide, toothy grin.

“Did you wake up because the pie smells so good?” Hikaru asks as he picks her up.

She nods eagerly and Hikaru mirrors it.

“Me, too. My radar caught the presence of pies within ten feet radius, Captain.” he says mock seriously, using his ‘Lieutenant Sulu’ voice.

“Affirmative, Lieutenant.”

Ben laughs, breaking the steely/comical focus in their eyes.

“Morning, Papa!” Demora beams.

“Good morning, sweetheart.” Ben bends down to kiss her rosy cheek.

“Are those razzies?!” Her eyes widen at the nearly empty bowl before them –most of them already atop the chocolate topping.

"They sure are. Would you like to finish ‘em?”

She makes a grabby-hand gesture as Ben hands her the plastic bowl.

Hikaru pokes at her side, “Demora sweetie, what do you say to Papa?” He gently reminds her.

“Fank you, Fafa,” she says with a full mouth, and Hikaru can’t believe his luck that this wonderful little girl is his and Ben’s and he’ll always have _them_ to come home to, no matter what happens at work. He might not be much, but he sure hopes he’s enough for them.

A small kiss as Ben moves away to the dining table seems to reassure him of that. “Dr. McCoy is inviting us to a surprise birthday party for Captain Kirk,” he reads out loud from his PADD. 

“McCoy? Surprise? For… Kirk?” Hikaru’s eyebrows furrow at how strange that sentence actually sounds.

“I figured it’s the closest thing to a family get-together around here, right?” Ben reasons. 

He thinks about it for a moment and hums in agreement. In many occasions, they only have each other to fall back on. Hikaru is just one of the crew members with a picture-perfect family and borderline-clichéd life to come home to. He can only hope that everyone else will be so lucky to have that kind of love in their lives.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, y'all! It's been forever since I last wrote a fic, but this pairing just captured my heart. I can't get enough of them <3
> 
> This started out as a songfic based on "A Soft Place to Land", a beautiful little number from a musical called "Waitress" (which you should TOTALLY check out because it's the most DARLING thing ever!) and it quickly escalated into... this. Haha!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it and I hope you would be so kind to comment and give kudos (if you deem this worthy, at least. Lol!)


End file.
